A picture is worth a thousand words.

Happy 1st Birthday Julius!

For the longest time, I couldn’t decide between throwing one big bash or having several cosy parties with family and close friends for Julius’ first birthday celebration. As the day drew closer, I was leaning towards the latter as it was not an easy task finding a suitable venue. That is, until by sheer luck we came across Picotin at the old Turf Club. We like the laidback and communal feel of the restaurant and its surroundings, and the wonderful lady boss Jacky and her staffs are the most easygoing and flexible people I’ve met. A few email exchanges later, we nailed the place. And they don’t even require a booking deposit, how rare!

With a month left to the big day, I dived into party planning right away. Scouring the Internet for ideas and gathering them onto an inspiration board I created using Pinterest, the whole process was much more fun and not as stressful as I had expected. Thanks to one of Alvin’s colleague who had kindly agreed to be the day’s official photographer, we can now relive moments from the party years after it’s over. And here’s a write up on the party prep:

By virtue of the restaurant’s address and the fact that it used to be a stable, a cowboy theme for the party came quite naturally. I wish I could say I design the invite myself but no, I got this off Etsy and simply customised the wordings. Love the broomstick horse and yellow star, plus I thought the silhouette of the little cowboy looks a lot like my little boy too. ;)

More Etsy finds here.

My love for this little-cowboy-with-lasso-and-stars-in-boots silhouette is apparent. It made its first appearance in this simple DIY sunflower centerpiece that brightens any buffet spread.

A classic sign for the cutest little outlaw WANTED for the high crime of GROWING UP TOO FAST!!! It took us more than half an hour to capture a shot that is not blurry and just the right size but it was worth all the effort. I then enlarged the sign, printed several copies and put them up all over the restaurant. It makes for a wonderful keepsake as well as a nice piece of decoration in his room after the party ended.

We Love You Julius! Happy 1st Birthday! Thought I’d make use of this existing chalkboard for the birthday message instead of the usual birthday banner.

What’s a party without favours? The red and blue rimmed cowboy straw hats, cowboy printed balloons and stuffed horses are all amazing finds from Oriental Trading . I ordered them online and delivered to a friend living in the States who then sweetly routed them to me. Not only were they a hit with the kids, even the adults love them too! But the ultimate crowd pleaser had to be the bottles of bubbles wrapped like candies using squares of red and blue bandana cloth. The sight of bubbles floating in the air made the birthday boy smiled a whole lot that day. :)

I’m the kind of guests who’d pay attention to background music being played at an event so imagine my surprise and delight when I came across the recently released “Cowboy Playground” from Putumayo Kids. It consists of 12 classic cowboy songs that are anything but kiddy sounding. Together with the “Animal Playground”, they dominated air time that afternoon. I am not sure how many people actually took notice of it but to me the right music certainly adds to the atmosphere of a party.

The scumptious buffet line consisting of afternoon tea spread and a few ala carte items off the menu: An assortment of open faced sandwiches, tart Provencal, scones with clotted cream and jam, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, 3 giant 21″ pizzas, calamari, chicken wings, green salad and jugs of Picotin’s homemade iced lemon tea. Oh and pints of Stella Artois too. Yes, we served beer at this one yo party! :D

The beautiful and well-made red and blue bandana buntings were another gem sourced from Etsy. I had wanted to hang them up but they looked pretty neat as skirting against the white tablecloth too.

Ah… my little cowboy and his broomstick horse! I chanced upon it when out for lunch on a random afternoon and knew I had to get it for the party. Press one ear and you’ll hear a galloping sound, press the other and the horse will neigh and grunt to a stop. Even though he wasn’t able to “gallop” on his own yet, he sure had a lot of fun playing and “riding” it.

Here’s where it made another appearance. I emailed the print of the little cowboy silhouette to the restaurant together with a sketch of the cake which I had painstakingly researched and designed. Instead of a bakery which charges exorbitant rate for a decorated cake of this size, Picotin was able to customise my dream cake and it definitely did not disappoint. Not only was it reasonably priced at $48/kg (this is a 2 kg cake), the dense chocolate cake tasted delicious too. It turned out exactly the way I wanted it. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with it!

Family and friends gathered for Julius’ first birthday song and cake moment… It was past his naptime but thankfully he made it to the cake cutting session without too much fuss!

Completely mesmerised by the flickering candle light, I made a birthday wish on behalf of my darling while my sweet 2 yo niece helped to blow the birthday candle.

A sweet gesture from the hubby, I received a gorgeous bouquet of hydrangea. :))

Finally, some shots of our lovely guests on a most lovely afternoon. Thank you all for indulging and showering us with your presents, hugs and kisses. We feel soooo loved!